Content classification method and content reproduction apparatus capable of performing the method

ABSTRACT

A tag-based content classification method of classifying content based on a custom tag defined using user taste-based category information and a content reproduction apparatus to perform the method. The content classification method includes: analyzing content, and classifying the content based on whether the content comprises a first custom tag, the first custom tag and a second custom tag, the first custom tag, the second custom tag, and a tag, or the first custom tag and the tag.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation application of a prior applicationSer. No. 11/737,960, filed on Apr. 20, 2007, which claimed the benefitunder 35 U.S.C §119(a) of a Korean Patent Application filed on Nov. 13,2006 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office and assigned Serialnumber 10-2006-0111885, the entire disclosure of which is herebyincorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

Aspects of the present invention relate to content classification and,more particularly, to a tag-based content classification method and acontent reproduction apparatus capable of performing the method.

2. Description of the Related Art

The development of the World Wide Web and large memory capacity ofcontent reproduction apparatuses cause the amount of content which userscan access and possess to be greater than users can easily manage. Dueto this, the time taken for users to access desired content has beenincreasing. Various content classification methods to reduce the timetaken to access desired content have been suggested.

Tag-based content classification methods classify content based on adescription defined in a tag. One of the conventional tag-based contentclassification methods is the ID3 tag-based content classificationmethod. The ID3 tag-based content classification method classifiescontent based on content information-based category information, such asartist, genre, and album. The user can thus access desired content basedon content information-based category information. The user cannotaccess desired content based on user taste-based category information.For example, the user can access desired content based on contentinformation-based category information such as artist, song, genre, etc.However, the user cannot access desired content based on usertaste-based category information (or user information-based categoryinformation) such as drive, love, rain, work, sleep, study, family, etc.

The conventional ID3 tag-based content classification method classifiescontent based on a predefined order. For example, if content is set tobe classified in the order of artist, genre, and album, a resultobtained by classifying the content in the order of artist, genre, andalbum as illustrated in FIG. 1 is provided to the user regardless of theuser's pattern of use. In FIGS. 1, A and B denote artist names, Cdenotes an album name, and D, E, F, and G denote music content namescorresponding to rock. The user cannot access desired content based onhis/her pattern of use.

Even if a reproduction frequency of the content E in the rock categoryis high, the time taken for the user to access the content E in the rockcategory is always the same. If the amount of content possessed by theuser increases, the time taken for the user to access the content E inthe rock category may increase as well.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Aspects of the present invention provide a tag-based contentclassification method of classifying content based on a custom tag thatis defined using user taste-based category information and a contentreproduction apparatus to perform the method.

Aspects of the present invention also provide a tag-based contentclassification method of classifying content by setting a tag that isdefined using content information-based category information as a customtag and a content reproduction apparatus to perform the method.

Aspects of the present invention also provide a tag-based contentclassification method of classifying content based on tags that aredefined using content information-based category information and usertaste-based category information and a content reproduction apparatus toperform the method.

Aspects of the present invention also provide a tag-based contentclassification method based on a pattern of use and a contentreproduction apparatus to perform the method.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided acontent classification method comprising analyzing content; and if thecontent comprises a first custom tag, classifying the content based onthe first custom tag, wherein the first custom tag contains at least oneitem of category information according to a user's taste.

According to another aspect of the present invention, if the contentfurther comprises a second custom tag to monitor a pattern of use, theclassifying of the content may comprise classifying the content based onthe first custom tag and the second custom tag.

According to another aspect of the present invention, if the contentfurther comprises at least one content-based tag defined using contentinformation-based category information, the classifying of the contentmay comprise classifying the content based on the first custom tag andthe second custom tag; and classifying the content based on thecontent-based tags, wherein one of the results of the classifying isselectively output according to a request of the user.

According to another aspect of the present invention, if at least one ofthe content-based tags is set as a custom tag, the classifying thecontent based on the first custom tag comprises classifying the contentbased on the first custom tag, the second custom tag, and the at leastone content-based tag set as a custom tag.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provideda content reproduction apparatus comprising a content analyzer toanalyze received content; and a content classifier to classify thecontent based on a first custom tag if the content comprises the firstcustom tag, wherein the first custom tag contains at least one item ofcategory information according to a user's taste.

Additional aspects and/or advantages of the invention will be set forthin part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obviousfrom the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and/or other aspects and advantages of the invention will becomeapparent and more readily appreciated from the following description ofthe embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings ofwhich:

FIG. 1 is a diagram describing a conventional content classificationmethod;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a content reproduction apparatus accordingto an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates data structures of content according to an embodimentof the present invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates a result of content classification, based on thecontent illustrated in FIG. 3, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 5 illustrates a result of content classification, based on thecontent illustrated in FIG. 3, according to another embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 6 illustrates a data structure of content according to anotherembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of the content classifier illustrated in FIG.2, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 illustrates a first result of content classification, based onthe content illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 6, according to an embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 9 illustrates a second result of content classification, based onthe content illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 6, according to an embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 10 illustrates a data structure of content according to anotherembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 illustrates a result of content classification, based on thecontent illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 10, according to an embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 12 illustrates a data structure of content according to anotherembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of the first content classifier illustratedin FIG. 7, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 illustrates a result of content classification, based on thecontent illustrated in FIGS. 3, 10, and 12, according to an embodimentof the present invention;

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of a content reproduction apparatus accordingto another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 16 illustrates a content classification screen according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating a content classification methodaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating a content classification processillustrated in FIG. 17, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention; and

FIG. 19 is a flowchart illustrating a content classification methodaccording to another embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to the present embodiments of thepresent invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elementsthroughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain thepresent invention by referring to the figures.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a content reproduction apparatus 200according to an embodiment of the present invention. The contentreproduction apparatus 200 includes a content analyzer 201 and a contentclassifier 202. The content reproduction apparatus 200 may be a portablemedia device, such as a notebook computer, an MP3 player, a mobilephone, or a Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) receiver, or a devicesuch as a Personal Computer (PC).

The content analyzer 201 analyzes received content. The content analyzer201 can analyze content when the content is received by the contentreproduction apparatus 200 or when content is reproduced by the contentreproduction apparatus 200. The content can be received by inputting thecontent directly into the content reproduction apparatus 200 or bydownloading the content to the content reproduction apparatus 200 usinga network such as the Internet. The content may include music-basedcontent, image or video-based content, text-based content, and/ormultimedia-based content. In other words, the content may be music-basedcontent (such as a music file), image/video-based content (such as aphotograph or video), text-based content, and/or multimedia-basedcontent.

The content analyzer 201 determines whether the received contentcontains a tag. If the received content contains a tag, the contentanalyzer 201 can determine whether the tag contained in the content is acontent information-based tag or a user information-based tag. Inaddition, the content analyzer 210 can determine whether a tag set asthe user information-based tag is in the content information-based tag.If the received content contains the content information-based tag andthe user information-based tag, the content analyzer 201 can determinewhich category information is contained in each tag.

The content information-based tag may be the same as a conventional ID3tag and is used to set content information-based category information,such as artist, genre, album, etc. The user information-based tag isused to set user taste-based category information, such as drive, love,rain, work, sleep, study, family, etc., and category information basedon a pattern use, such as a reproduction frequency and the number ofreproductions. Other aspects of the invention may use tag systems otherthan ID3.

The user information-based tag can be embedded into the content by theuser via a content portal or a website, or set in the content by theuser using the content reproduction apparatus 200. The userinformation-based tag is defined hereinafter as a custom tag. A customtag based on the user taste-based category information is defined as afirst custom tag. A custom tag based on the user's using pattern-basedcategory information is defined as a second custom tag. Since the customtag is used to provide a result obtained by classifying contentaccording to a user's taste, the custom tag can be defined as a smarttag.

The content information-based tag and the custom tag are set using areserved area of the content. If a reserved area exists in a front endof the content, at least one of the content information-based tag andthe custom tag can be set in the front end of the content. If a reservedarea exists in a back end of the content, at least one of the contentinformation-based tag and the custom tag can be set in the back end ofthe content. If reserved areas exist in the front end and back end ofthe content, at least one of the content information-based tag and thecustom tag can be set in the front end and/or the back end of thecontent.

The tags may be located in any convenient part of the content. If thecontent is music-based content, at least one of the contentinformation-based tag and the custom tag may be set using at least oneof a command field and a variable space of the content. If the contentis image-based content, at least one of the content information-basedtag and the custom tag may be set using a command field of the content.If the content is video-based content, at least one of the contentinformation-based tag and the custom tag may be set using a descriptionspace of the content. If the content is text-based content, at least oneof the content information-based tag and the custom tag may be set usinga reserved area of the content or another convenient area of thecontent.

The analysis result of the content analyzer 201 is output to the contentclassifier 202. If the content includes the first custom tag as theanalysis result, the content classifier 202 classifies the content basedon the first custom tag. If the content includes the first custom tag, adata structure of the content can be defined as illustrated in FIG. 3.FIG. 3 illustrates data structures of content in which each tag areaexists in a back end of the content according to an embodiment of thepresent invention. However, the data structures are not limited thereto;the tag areas illustrated in FIG. 3 can also be defined to exist in afront end of the content.

Since user information-based category information is set in each tagarea in FIG. 3, the tag areas can be called first custom tag areas. FIG.3 illustrates data structures of .mp3 files AAA, BBB, CCC, and EEE, a.jpg file DDD, and a .doc file FFF. User information-based categoryinformation “love”, “drive”, and “work” is set in the content AAA. Userinformation-based category information “love” and “drive” is set in thecontent BBB. User information-based category information “drive” is setin the content CCC. User information-based category information “love”is set in the content DDD. User information-based category information“drive” is set in the content EEE. User information-based categoryinformation “work” is set in the content FFF.

If the received content is the same as that illustrated in FIG. 3, thecontent classifier 202 sets “love”, “drive”, and “work” as categoryinformation based on the analysis result with respect to the firstcustom tag, which is input from the content analyzer 201. The contentclassifier 202 classifies the content so that each of the correspondingcontent names is disposed in a lower layer of the category information.The content classifier 202 outputs a content classification result asillustrated in FIG. 4.

FIG. 4 illustrates a result of content classification based on thecontent illustrated in FIG. 3, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. Categories of the content possessed by the user are “love”,“drive”, and “work”. The “love” category contains the .mp3 files AAA andBBB and the .jpg file DDD. The “drive” category contains the .mp3 filesAAA, BBB, CCC, and EEE. The “work” category contains the .mp3 files AAAand the .doc file FFF.

When the content classifier 202 classifies the content, the arrangementorder of the category information can be determined by the user or basedon the amount of content in each category. FIG. 4 illustrates the casewhere the user determined the arrangement order of the categoryinformation to be “love”, “drive”, and “work”. However, any ordering ispossible: if the user determined the arrangement order of the categoryinformation to be “drive”, “love”, and “work”, the order of “love” and“drive” shown in FIG. 4 would have the order of “drive” and “love”switched. In addition, the arrangement order is determined according tothe amount of content in each category, the arrangement order of “love”and “drive” in FIG. 4 would be changed to the order of “drive” and“love”.

If the user gathers all of the content contained in the “love” and“drive” categories and sets the “drive” category as a child category ofthe “love” category, a content classification result output from thecontent classifier 202 with respect to the content illustrated in FIG. 3is as illustrated in FIG. 5. FIG. 5 illustrates a result of contentclassification based on the content illustrated in FIG. 3, according toanother embodiment of the present invention. The “drive” category is setin a lower layer of the “love” category at the same level as the .jpgfile having the content name DDD. Each category can be set in ahierarchical structure according to a request of the user. Thus, theuser can quickly access content commonly related to the “love” and“drive” categories.

If a data structure of the received content is the same as thatillustrated in FIG. 6, the content analyzer 201 provides an analysisresult of the received content to the content classifier 202. Thecontent analysis result provided to the content classifier 202 indicatesthat the received content includes a first tag area and a second tagarea. A plurality of tags defined as the content information-basedcategory information are set in the first tag area and the custom tag isset in the second tag area. The first custom tag includes informationindicating the category information contained in the plurality of tagsand the category information contained in the custom tag.

FIG. 6 illustrates a data structure of content according to anotherembodiment of the present invention. A first tag area and a second tagarea are included in a back-end of the content. A plurality of tags,defined as the content information-based category information, is set inthe first tag area. The first custom tag is set in the second tag area.The positions of the first tag area and the second tag area can beexchanged. The first tag area and the second tag area can exist in afront end of the content.

If received content has the data structure illustrated in FIG. 3 or thedata structure illustrated in FIG. 6, the content classifier 202 can beconfigured as illustrated in FIG. 7. FIG. 7 is a block diagram of thecontent classifier 202 illustrated in FIG. 2, according to an embodimentof the present invention. The content classifier 202 includes a tagtransmitter 701, a first content classifier 702, a second contentclassifier 703, and a selector 704.

When the content analysis result is received, the tag transmitter 701transmits category information of the first custom tag set in the secondtag area to the first content classifier 702 and transmits categoryinformation of the plurality of tags set in the first tag area to thesecond content classifier 703.

The first content classifier 702 classifies the content based on thefirst custom tag. Like the content classification operation of thecontent classifier 202 illustrated in FIG. 3, the first contentclassifier 702 classifies the content. The content being receivedincludes the content illustrated in FIG. 3 and the content illustratedin FIG. 6. The content illustrated in FIG. 6 has category information“love” and “drive” in the first custom tag. Thus, a contentclassification result output from the first content classifier 702 canbe defined as illustrated in FIG. 8. FIG. 8 illustrates a first resultof content classification, based on the content illustrated in FIGS. 3and 6, according to an embodiment of the present invention. Unlike FIG.4, FIG. 8 shows a content classification result in which an .mp3 filehaving a content name GGG is contained in the “love” category and the“drive” category.

The second content classifier 703 classifies the content based on theplurality of tags set in the first tag area. Referring to FIG. 6, in theplurality of tags, “singer name A” is set as an artist, “ballad” is setas a genre, and “album2” is set as an album name. The second contentclassifier 703 classifies the content based on category information“artist”, “genre”, and “album” as illustrated in FIG. 9. FIG. 9illustrates a second result of content classification, based on thecontent illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 6, according to an embodiment of thepresent invention. The reason why the second result of contentclassification, illustrated in FIG. 9, includes only information on thecontent illustrated in FIG. 6 is that the content illustrated in FIG. 3does not include a tag in which content information-based categoryinformation is set.

The selector 704 selects one of an output of the first contentclassifier 702 and an output of the second content classifier 703according to a request of the user and outputs the selected output.

At least one of the plurality of tags in the first tag area included inthe content illustrated in FIG. 6 can be set as a third custom tag. Atleast one of the plurality of tags can be set as the third custom tagwhen the custom tag is set in the content. When the custom tag isembedded in the content by the user in a content portal or a website orwhen the custom tag is set in the content by the user in the contentreproduction apparatus 200, at least one of the plurality of tags can beset as the custom tag.

FIG. 10 illustrates a data structure of content according to anotherembodiment of the present invention, in which an artist tag is set asthe third custom tag. The content illustrated in FIG. 10 has the samedata structure as that illustrated in FIG. 6 except that the artist tagis set as the third custom tag. If a data structure of the receivedcontent is the same as illustrated in FIG. 10 instead of thatillustrated in FIG. 6, the first content classifier 702 receivesinformation on the artist tag from the tag transmitter 701. The firstcontent classifier 702 classifies the content based on the first customtag and the tag set as the third custom tag (in the content shown inFIG. 10, the artist tag). Since the “singer name A” is set in the artisttag in FIG. 10, a content classification result output from the firstcontent classifier 702 can be defined as illustrated in FIG. 11. FIG. 11illustrates a result of content classification, based on the contentillustrated in FIGS. 3 and 10, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. The content is classified so that an .mp3 file GGG iscontained in the “love” category, the “drive” category, and the “singername A” category.

FIG. 12 illustrates a data structure of content according to anotherembodiment of the present invention. The content illustrated in FIG. 12is an .mp3 file HHH in which a plurality of tags defined as contentinformation-based category information is set in a first tag area, and afirst custom tag and a second custom tag which is a categoryinformation-based custom tag through which a using pattern of the usercan be known, are set in a second tag area. If the received content hasa data structure as illustrated in FIG. 12, the first content classifier702 classifies the content based on the first custom tag and the secondcustom tag.

Category information set in the second custom tag illustrated in FIG. 12contains reproduction frequency information and information on thenumber of reproductions completed. For the reproduction frequencyinformation, a value incremented every time reproduction of the contentHHH starts is set. For the information on the number of reproductionscompleted, a value incremented every time reproduction of the contentHHH is completed is set. An arrangement order of content included in thesame category can be determined based on the information set in thesecond custom tag. The first content classifier 702 can classify thecontent so that content having both a higher reproduction frequency anda higher number of reproductions completed is arranged in the uppermostposition in the same category. Content having both a lower reproductionfrequency and a lower number of reproductions completed is arranged inthe lowermost position in the same category. For category informationset in the first custom tag, a value incremented on a categoryinformation basis each time reproduction of the content HHH starts canalso be set.

In order to classify content as described above, the first contentclassifier 702 can be configured as illustrated in FIG. 13. FIG. 13 is ablock diagram of the first content classifier 702 illustrated in FIG. 7,according to an embodiment of the present invention. The first contentclassifier 702 includes a logging unit 1301, a storage unit 1302, and acontent classification unit 1303.

The logging unit 1301 logs the category information defined in the firstcustom tag and the second custom tag. If the received content has thedata structure illustrated in FIG. 12 in which an artist tag is not setas the third custom tag, and if reproduction of the content iscompleted, the logging unit 1301 logs “love”, “reproduction frequency”,and “the number of reproductions completed”. If the received content hasthe data structure illustrated in FIG. 12 in which the artist tag is notset as the third custom tag, and if reproduction of the content is notcompleted, the logging unit 1301 logs “love” and “reproductionfrequency”. If the received content is the content AAA, the logging unit1301 logs “love”, “drive”, and “work”. If the received content has thedata structure illustrated in FIG. 12, and if reproduction of thecontent is completed, the logging unit 1301 logs category informationdefined in the first custom tag, the second custom tag and a tag set asa custom tag. The logging unit 1301 logs “singer name B”, “love”,“reproduction frequency”, and “the number of reproductions completed”.If the received content has the data structure illustrated in FIG. 12,and if reproduction of the content is not completed, the logging unit1301 logs “singer name B”, “love”, and “reproduction frequency”.

The storage unit 1302 stores the result of the logging. If the receivedcontent is the content illustrated in FIGS. 3, 10, and 12, the storageunit 1302 stores results obtained by logging the category information ofthe content illustrated in FIGS. 3, 10, and 12.

The content classification unit 1303 classifies the content bydetermining the importance of each of the category information and/orcontent based on the results of the logging, which are stored in thestorage unit 1302. If the order of importance is determined to be“love”, “drive”, “singer name B”, “singer name A”, and “work” based onthe results of logging, the order of the content in the “love” categoryis determined to be HHH, GGG, AAA, BBB, and DDD, the order of thecontent in the “drive” category is determined to be GGG, AAA, BBB, CCC,and EEE, and the order of the content in the “work” category isdetermined to be AAA and FFF. The content classification unit 1303outputs a result of content classification as illustrated in FIG. 14,based on the content illustrated in FIGS. 3, 10, and 12.

According to the results of the logging, the importance can be evaluatedas being high as the number of logged counts of a tag increases. FIG. 14indicates that the logged counts of the “love” category is the greatestof the “love”, “drive”, “singer name B”, “singer name A”, and “work”categories and indicates that the logged counts of the content HHH arethe greatest in the “love” category.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of a content reproduction apparatus 1500according to another embodiment of the present invention. The contentreproduction apparatus 1500 includes a content analyzer 1501, a contentclassifier 1502, a storage unit 1503, and a display unit 1504. Thecontent analyzer 1501 and the content classifier 1502 operate similarlyto the content analyzer 201 and the content classifier 202 illustratedin FIG. 2.

The storage unit 1503 stores a result of content classification outputfrom the content classifier 1502. Every time a stored result isrequested, the storage unit 1503 outputs the stored result of contentclassification to the display unit 1504. The display unit 1504 displaysthe result of content classification output from the content classifier1502 or the storage unit 1503. The displayed result of contentclassification can be displayed in a text format as illustrated in FIGS.4, 5, 8, 9, 11, and 14. However, as illustrated in FIG. 16, thedisplayed content classification result can be displayed in anotherfashion in order to display the importance of the category informationmore clearly.

FIG. 16 illustrates a content classification screen according to anembodiment of the present invention. The importance of content which auser can currently access is set in the order of “love”, “drive”,“singer name B”, “singer name A”, and “work” categories. The “love”category is the largest, indicating that the “love” category is thecategory with the highest importance.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating a content classification routineaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. Content is analyzedin operation 1701. The content analysis can be performed as described inthe content reproduction apparatus 200 illustrated in FIG. 2. Thecontent can be analyzed when content is received or when content isreproduced. The content may include music-based content, image orvideo-based content, text-based content, and/or multimedia-basedcontent.

If, in operation 1702, the content contains only a first custom tag, thecontent is classified based on the first custom tag in operation 1703.The first custom tag contains at least one piece of category informationaccording to a user's taste. If only the first custom tag is containedin the received content, the content classification method is the sameas illustrated in FIG. 2.

However, as illustrated in FIG. 13, the content can be classified bylogging each piece of category information contained in the first customtag and determining the importance of each piece of the categoryinformation based on a result obtained by logging category informationincluded in each piece of the content. The content can be classified asillustrated in FIG. 18. FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating a contentclassification process illustrated in FIG. 17, according to anembodiment of the present invention. Each piece of the categoryinformation contained in the first custom tag is logged in operation1801. A result of logging on a category information basis of the contentis stored in operation 1802. The content is classified based on theresult of logging on the category information basis of the content inoperation 1803.

If, in operation 1704, the content contains only the first custom tagand a second custom tag, the content is classified based on the firstcustom tag and the second custom tag in operation 1705. The secondcustom tag is a custom tag to monitor a pattern of use. When the contentis reproduced, operation 1705 can be performed as illustrated in FIG.18. The category information contained in the first custom tag and thesecond custom tag is logged in operation 1801. A result of logging onthe category information basis of the content is stored in operation1802. The content is classified by determining the importance of eachpiece of the category information and/or the importance of each piece ofthe content based on the result of logging on the category informationbasis of the content in operation 1803.

If, in operation 1706, the content contains only the first custom tagand at least one of the tags defined as content information-basedcategory information, the content is classified based on the firstcustom tag and the at least one tag in operation 1707. As illustrated inFIG. 7, the content is classified based on the first custom tag, thecontent is classified based on the least one tag, and one of the resultof content classification based on the first custom tag and the resultof content classification based on the at least one tag is selectivelyoutput.

If, in operation 1708, the content contains only the first custom tag,the second custom tag, and at least one of the tags defined as contentinformation-based category information, the content is classified basedon the first custom tag, the second custom tag, and the at least one tagin operation 1709. The content is classified based on the first customtag and the second custom tag, the content is classified based on the atleast one tag, and one of the result of content classification based onthe first custom tag, the second custom tag, and the result of contentclassification based on the least one tag is selectively output.

In addition, if the at least one tags defined as contentinformation-based category information is set as the third custom tag,when the content is classified in operation 1707 or 1709, the content isclassified based on the tag set as the third custom tag.

FIG. 19 is a flowchart illustrating a content classification routineaccording to another embodiment of the present invention. As inoperation 1701, content is analyzed in operation 1901. As in operations1702 through 1709, the content is classified based on tags in operation1902. The tags can include the first custom tag, the second custom tag,and the tags defined as content information-based category information.

The content classification result is displayed in operation 1903. Thecontent classification result can be displayed so that the importance ofthe category information and/or the importance of the content isdisplayed. The importance of the category information and/or theimportance of the content can be determined by the logging operationdescribed in relation to FIG. 13.

The custom tags used in the embodiments described above can be used todisplay image content in a slide show format and to reproduce multimediaassociated with music when the image content is reproduced. Thereproduction can be performed by recording the same category informationin custom tags of the image content, which a user desires to display ina slide show format, and recording the same category information in theimage content, which the user desires to reproduce as multimedia.

Content classification techniques according to aspects of the presentinvention may be recorded in computer-readable media including programinstructions to implement various operations embodied by a computer. Themedia may also include, alone or in combination with the programinstructions, data files, data structures, and the like. Examples ofcomputer-readable media include magnetic media such as hard disks,floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media such as CD ROM disks andDVD; magneto-optical media such as optical disks; and hardware devicesthat are specially configured to store and perform program instructions,such as read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), flashmemory, and the like; and a computer data signal embodied in a carrierwave comprising a compression source code segment and an encryptionsource code segment (such as data transmission through the Internet).Examples of program instructions include both machine code, such asproduced by a compiler, and files containing higher level code that maybe executed by the computer using an interpreter. The described hardwaredevices may be configured to act as one or more software modules inorder to perform the operations of the above-described embodiments ofthe present invention.

As described above, according to aspects of the present invention, byclassifying content based on a custom tag defined as user taste-basedcategory information, a user can access desired content more quickly byusing the user taste-based category information. For example, whiledriving, the user can access content that the user frequently reproducesmore quickly using a “drive” category information.

In addition, the user can access desired content using the contentinformation-based category information as user taste-based categoryinformation by setting a tag defined based on conventional contentinformation-based category information as the third custom tag andclassifying content based on the third custom tag. For example, if theuser sets “jazz”, which is content information-based categoryinformation, as the third custom tag, the user can access contentrelated to jazz more quickly using the category information “jazz”.

The user can access desired content using various kinds of informationby classifying content using both tags defined based on the conventionalcontent information-based category information and custom tags.

In addition, by classifying content using a custom tag defined based ona pattern of use, the user can access desired content more quickly basedon the using pattern of the user. For example, if a reproductionfrequency of content related to a “drive” category is the highest fromamong “love”, “rain”, and “drive” categories, since content isclassified so that the user can access the content contained in the“drive” category earlier than content contained in the “love” and “rain”categories, the user can access the content contained in the “drive”category more quickly.

By displaying category information set in a custom tag in a cloud formin which the size of the cloud corresponding to the category informationis determined according to the importance or reproduction frequency ofthe category information, the user can easily determine the categoryinformation having a higher importance or reproduction frequency.

Furthermore, when image content is reproduced, based on a custom tag,the image content can be displayed in a slide show format, and the imagecontent can be reproduced in multimedia associated with music.

Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown anddescribed, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art thatchanges may be made in this embodiment without departing from theprinciples and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined inthe claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A content classification method comprising: updating information contained in a first custom tag and a second custom tag associated with a content, wherein the content has the first custom tag containing user taste-based category information and the second custom tag containing information for monitoring a use pattern of the content; classifying the content based on a result of the updating; and displaying a result obtained by classifying the content.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the content further comprises at least one content-based tag defined using content information-based category information, wherein one or more of the at least one of the content-based tags is set as a third custom tag, and wherein the updating of the information comprises updating the at least one content-based tag set as the third custom tag.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the updating of the information is performed after receiving the content or after reproducing the content.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the classifying of the content comprises: determining at least one of the importance of each of the category information and the importance of the content based on the result of the updating, and classifying the content based on a result of the determination.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the content comprises at least one of music-based content, image or video-based content, text based content, and multimedia-based content.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein, if the content is music-based content, the first custom tag and the second custom tag are set using at least one of a command field and a variable space of the content, wherein, if the content is image-based content, the first custom tag and the second custom tag are set using the command field of the content, wherein, if the content is video-based content, the first custom tag and the second custom tag are set using a description space of the content, and wherein, if the content is text-based content, the first custom tag and the second custom tag are set using a reserved area.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the classifying of the content comprises: storing a result of the classification in a storage unit.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the information for monitoring the use pattern of the content comprises reproduction frequency information related to the content and information on a number of reproduction completions related to the content.
 9. An apparatus comprising: a logging unit configured to update information contained in a first custom tag and a second custom tag associated with a content, wherein the content has the first custom tag containing at least one item of category information based on a user's taste, and the second custom tag containing information for monitoring a use pattern of the content; a content classifier configured to classify the content based on a result of the updating by the logging unit; and a display unit configured to present a result obtained by classifying the content.
 10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the content further comprises at least one content-based tag defined using content information-based category information, wherein one or more of the at least one content-based tag is set as a third custom tag, and wherein the logging unit updates one or more of the at least one content-based tag set as the third custom tag.
 11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the logging unit operates after receiving the content by the content reproduction apparatus or after reproducing the content by the content reproduction apparatus.
 12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the content classifier determines at least one of the importance of each of the items of category information and the importance of the content based on the result of the updating, and classifies the content based on a result of the determination.
 13. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising a storage unit configured to store a result of the classification.
 14. A non-transitory computer readable medium having one or more programs which include commands for executing a method for classifying a plurality of content, the method comprising: updating information contained in a first custom tag and a second custom tag associated with a content, wherein the content has the first custom tag containing user taste-based category information and the second custom tag containing information for monitoring a use pattern of the content; classifying the content based on a result of the updating; and displaying a result obtained by classifying the content. 